Smooth Landings – How to Create and Manage a Successful Travel Program by Michael MacNair   Business travel represents the second largest controllable cost for the average U.S. business. “Smooth Landings is published during a time of rising travel costs and cost reduction pressures inside organizations,” author Michael MacNair says. “Many organizations are confused about what to do when managing travel, so they allow each traveler to make his or her own choices with little guidance and education, which results in travel anarchy. Focusing on the strategic side of procuring travel (both online and call in), coupled with the transactional side, an organization can realize a tremendous result in time and money savings, liability reduction, systems and controls, support and advocacy.” With this book, travel managers will learn how to identify: Benefits of managed travel and how to define expectations. Steps to take to manage this cost to ensure the company and its travelers realize savings. What to ask for and expect in the marketplace to deliver the greatest results.

So now that we know what to expect, what can we do to manage these changes and obstacles?

1. Improve Reporting, Budgeting, and Auditing.
2. Strengthen Travel Policy
3. Improve Communication
4. Control Demand
5. Define Policy for Travel Alternatives
6. Consider Globalization
7. Centralize Travel and Meeting Procurement
8. Leverage Preferred Suppliers
9. Manage Miscellaneous Costs
10. Emergency Management

Improve Reporting, Budgeting, and Auditing.
Via your travel management company you can secure consolidated “booked” data that can be reconciled against your credit card or actual data. This enhanced actual data can be driven to department heads. Online booking tools offered through travel management companies even have tie-ins with automated expense reporting systems so this data can also be included to track the myriad of new miscellaneous costs of travel (enhanced seats, Wi-Fi, and standby flights). Lastly, benchmark data on national average ticket costs can be useful to measure the success of your travel management system or can be used for budgets or proposals. There is still plenty or travel anarchy, so securing consolidated data and auditing it is a big first step.

Strengthen Travel Policy.
Have a clear travel policy mandate that comes from the top of your organization and mirrors your culture. In these times, employees recognize cost savings initiatives, so if you have one, you just may want to tighten it now. It should define exactly what the lowest fare is that you want them to take, where to purchase it, commitments to preferred suppliers, when to book online or call-in, expected processes and procedures (project codes and expense reports), who the policy applies to (management, staff, board, speaker, and committees), emergency processes and acceptable miscellaneous costs.

Improve Communication.
Have a system to communicate emergency changes and procedures, new tools, and expectations. Consider creating your own travel intranet with a link for your online booking tool from your travel agency, policy link, and shared hints and tweets (TripIt is launching a tool to facilitate this right now). Leverage and train your team on how to use existing tech tools for gate changes, cancellations, alerts.

Control Demand.
Consider items such as a pre-trip approval processes and technology tools to monitor in advance how many travelers travel and at what cost. Consider directing everyone you are paying for to an event specific travel policy, including a price threshold. Encourage travelers to handle multiple projects or customers per trip or define a trip’s ROI expectation. Consider driving or taking shorter trips with less overnights.

Define Policy for Travel Alternatives.
Virtual meetings are becoming popular. Consider the cost of such systems, suppliers, maintenance, management and where these tools will be located and develop a policy. Many hotels now have virtual meeting suites. Measure the success of virtual options and direct employees to the proper use – sales are hard to close virtually for example.

Consider Globalization.
Many companies have increased international travel so address international procedures. Most online tools do not go far enough to find the lowest global fares and best routes on growing numbers of low cost and native airlines that are not commonly found in reservation systems. Consider your travel providers access to these suppliers, expertise, rate desk capabilities, fare search process and leverage with suppliers! Make sure your travel policy addresses safety, currency and miscellaneous cost differential for international travel. Security tools like iJet and indigo are becoming popular for those travelers to some of the world’s challenging spots.

Centralize Travel and Meeting Procurement.
Companies have found that it makes sense to ensure procurement system and communication consistency, consolidation of roles, leverage synergies, and a 360 degree view for all types of travel when combining travel and meeting procurement. TMC online booking tools also offer online meeting management.

Leverage Preferred Suppliers.
Suppliers want to see your control of travel habits and sizable volume. So prepare your case and leverage your total volume to find the optimum discounts, benefits, and waivers – even via small business programs (United’s Perks Plus or Hertz #1 Gold…) and meeting discounts. Then, take the next step to apply these relationships to all the travel to pay for; board members, consultants and even speakers. Once you are earning funds and tickets, establish policies to use them more effectively.

Manage Miscellaneous Costs.
$1.5 billion was paid to the airlines last year in on-board fees. Measure how this is effecting your average trip cost via expense reports, define expectations in your travel policy, and ask suppliers for credit in your supplier agreement for these additional costs. Your policy can also address how to avoid these costs via elite status, the use of carriers who do not charge, and pre-planning.

Emergency Management.
We discussed the fact emergencies have already impacted travelers. What is your system for supporting these effected travelers? Maintaining employee productivity and safety at work either in the office or on travel is a corporate responsibility. Contingency plans, insurance, and security tools are available from providers experienced in business travel.

So which of these issues apply to you? Develop your plan for improvement, seek help from professionals, and gain further control, savings, efficiencies, and support.

*Facts obtained from the 2010 NBTA Business Travel Forecast.

Michael MacNair owns MacNair Travel Management, a privately owned American Express Representative Office, which has helped organizations develop a clear Travel Management System that delivers unparalleled value and exceeds expectations. MacNair Travel is a Travel Leadership Consulting Firm because of its proactive consulting toward the development of a cutting-edge travel plan, dedication to unbiased rate searches that save money and time, and dedicated service teams that build confidence. Michael MacNair, author of Smooth Landings, conducts Travel Management seminars for many organizations, such as the National Business Travel Association, and is a frequent media spokesperson. For more information, visit: www.macnairtravel.com or call 703-836-1100.

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Tip 1: Use credit cards whenever possible. These do not incur an exchange fee and so provide the cheapest way to make purchases abroad.

Tip 2: Withdrawal foreign currency using an ATM. Again, this avoids an exchange rate penalty and the ATM fee charged by your local bank is often smaller than the fee charged by currency exchangers.

Note: It is important to accurately estimate the amount of ‘hard’ currency needed so to minimize the number of ATM withdrawals and subsequently ATM use fees incurred. Ask a colleague, friend, or family member living in the country to be visited or familiar with travel there to help you make this estimate. Remember, acquiring too much foreign currency will result in the need to pay a high conversion fee to change the unused foreign money back to your home country’s currency.

Tip 3: When receiving money from a currency exchanger, always check that the money received is the correct denomination and from the correct country. These transactions have a manual component which can result in costly (to you!) errors if the wrong currency is exchanged. For example, receiving Euros instead of British Pounds devalues your transaction (as of this article’s publication a Euro is worth less than a Pound) and may cause you troubles and embarrassment later when trying to spend this money in the United Kingdom.

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In addition to the many benefits of LinkedIn membership (see the Tools for Professionals post, LinkedIn), members of the StrategyDriven LinkedIn Networking Group will have the opportunity to more easily communicate with other like-minded professionals seeking to create greater alignment and accountability within their organizations.

To join the StrategyDriven LinkedIn Networking Group, click here. LinkedIn members will be asked to “Sign-in and join this group” and non-members to “Join LinkedIn now.” Once you have accepted the invitation to join our networking group, a member of the StrategyDriven staff will approve your group membership and you will be LinkedIn!

As always, we hope you continue to enjoy the many quality principle, best practice, and warning flag posts found on the StrategyDriven website and that you’ll find membership in the StrategyDriven LinkedIn Networking Group to be of additional benefit to you and your organization.

I’ll look forward seeing you on LinkedIn!

All the Best,

Karen Juliano
Editor-in-Chief
Director, Communications and Marketing
StrategyDriven

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LinkedIn
www.LinkedIn.com

About the Resource

LinkedIn is a free online networking service connecting 24 million experienced professionals worldwide. Members create biographies viewable by the internet community that include as many of the following attributes as desired:

• background summary and photo
• current and past employment experience including company, position, and job description
• education including school, degree conferred, years attended, special activities, and recognition
• membership in professional groups and associations
• honors and awards received
• industry affiliation
• personal, professional, or business website links

LinkedIn allows members to build their networks by connecting with other members they know through current or past business, school, or personal relationships. Members can further expand their networks by joining one or more corporate, alumni, and/or professional LinkedIn groups and by getting introduced to other members through people they know. LinkedIn also offers paid subscriptions that give premium members tools for finding and reaching people outside of their network.

Benefits of Using this Resource

Networks are an increasingly important part of every professional’s career. LinkedIn helps members build and maintain their network as well as affording them the opportunity to:

• find potential clients, service providers, subject matter experts, and partners
• post and distribute job listings
• find high-quality passive candidates
• be found for business opportunities
• search for employment opportunities
• leverage inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals

The quality of these opportunities is further validated by the recommendations members provide for others with whom they have a relationship.

Final Thought…

Relationships, not business card networks, are a cornerstone of every successful professional career. LinkedIn is a premier tool for helping experienced professionals stay connected with those in their network, however, it cannot create or maintain relationships. Professionals must personally develop and nurture the relationships within their network. It is through active relationships and quality interactions with others that the full measure of LinkedIn’s benefits can be realized.

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